Stay closed drawer slides have become more and more prevalent in cabinet applications. Most cabinets are used in kitchen and bathroom environments, although not exclusively so, and since there is quite often a great deal of human traffic in these areas the need existed for a drawer that would tend to stay closed. One can appreciate the fact that open drawers can pose a hazard to an unsuspecting passer-by and it has been known that some drawers of the non-stay closed type would somewhat spontaneously open on their own accord because of loading effects, misalignment or possibly other causes.
Stay closed drawer slides of the prior art are known using two members for the suspension of a drawer within a cabinet. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,248 (Grass) shows a two member drawer slide with portions of the drawer and cabinet members angled to promote a tendency for the slide assembly to stay in the closed position. In particular, the rear of the cabinet member has a declining angle for the flange that supports the roller on the drawer member. Similarly, in the front portion of the drawer member, there is an inclining angle imparted to the flange that rides on the cabinet member roller. The effect is that as the drawer member is moved from an open position to a closed position, and the angled areas in each member are reached simultaneously, the drawer member (and hence the drawer) is urged rearward through the effect of gravity acting to bias the drawer slide into rolling into the angled areas.
A similar design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,288 (Houck) which also has portions of the drawer member and cabinet member angled to promote a stay close bias. The prior art drawer slides have cabinet members that are mounted directly to the sidewalls of the cabinet. This has been an effective approach in fitting out a cabinet with stay close drawer slides, however the installation of the assembly does require a degree of precision in fitting the cabinet member to the cabinet and the drawer member to the drawer. If a mistake is made in measuring the components, or in screwing the slides in place, then the assembly may have the drawer front land on the cabinet frame, or the drawer may extend outwardly from the front of the cabinet. As a result, the assembly process is done with great care which reduces the production efficiency when using the prior art drawer slides.
The observation has been made that efficient installation of stay close drawer slides in a production setting, such as a cabinet manufacturer, is a desirable objective that has not been fully achieved until now.